links for 2010-03-05

This article is dead right about those pigeons being superior to humans.

I spent a lot of 8th grade trying to convince some schoolmates that I was right and they were wrong about the Monty Hall problem. I even brought in dice, and rolled a good 50 samples, 2 columns of 25, one where they switched after being told it was the wrong door, and one where they didn't.
Demonstrating 50% vs 33%, most 8th graders STILL wouldn't accept the truth — even when faced with empirical evidence generated **in front of their own eyes**.
People just don't want to believe. It always amazed me. Still, it's interesting that they used 8th graders in the study, and they were the group most likely to figure it out. Not in my experience, unless you only count me! :)

FIVE FUCKING COPS HERE, and they had to shoot a cripple. Oh my god, he had a pipe and/or a knife. (Or did he?) Better shoot him in the head. Nevermind that this person walks with a cane. Scared little piggies couldn't run away or deal with the situation sensibly. Kieth Smith sounds like slime — they drove around to harass people they thought were criminals — including throwing eggs? Is this the conduct of an officer?

Great how we treat mental health in this country. Since we are the only country without socialized medicine, a lot of mental health goes untreated due to lack of funds, or people's individual cheapness. And then Reagan kicked the crazies to the street. Jail populations went up approximately by how much nuthouse populations went down. It's cheaper to have slave labor than mental hospitals where people have rights.

If you're born with the wrong biology, The Man will shoot you in the head.

Police Commission rejects allowing officers to use tasers. Good! Research showing that in-custody deaths increased in the first year of Taser deployment in 50 California cities was cited.

Tasers were "sold" to the public as being devices that would save lives. It seems like the opposite is true.

Glad to see authorities, at least in liberal states, are starting to realize this. Even Taser International says not to aim at peoples' chests! Kinda makes it hard to use them if you can't aim for the center of someone's mass, doesn't it?

There are few cities where they have not yet been deployed, so there really are few chances to prevent tasers from being introduced: Most police already have them.

I'm also surprised that the article mentions some sanity coming out of Memphis, Tenn. THAT police department has a mental health response team. Good idea: Much like the "811" I've been proposing for several years, as a "soft 911 where they don't shoot you right away".

Very interesting. If this could be proven to be true, I would think it would change the face of politics.

Don't help the homeless because they don't help themselves? If everyone is just doing what they are programmed to do, those of us worse off absolutley deserve help from those of us better off. It's a matter of tuning all of us "machines" (humans) to perform more optimally. Also says a lot about the pointlessness of the drug war. This changes judicial concepts as well.

Ahh, capitalism. If you don't have the money for a place, we will let you die. We wont even take you to jail. You're worthless. Go die now. [These comments are not how I feel, but how society seems to feel.]

He wanted to demonstrate how crooked cops were. He reported a suspicious package, and put $45 in it.

The $45 "allegedly" disappeared when Liberty Hill Police *Captain* George Nassour got the bag. That is felony tampering with evidence, and a reason for an officer to lose his job forever.

What did they do? They arrested Barry Cooper. Apparently, police can conduct stings on people to find crooked people, but people cannot conduct stings on police to find crooked police.

I understand the letter of the law here — false police reports are illegal — but maybe they should not be, when they are used to show what dicks some officers can be. I've already made up my own mind about what I think happened. You don't typically raid someone's house for a false police report misdemeanor.

This is retaliation for making George Nassour look like a fool, and retaliation for Cooper selling his "Never Get Busted" tapes, based on his regrets from working as a drug interdiction officer.

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4 Responses to “links for 2010-03-05”

10-day suspension recommended: But not for what he did, of course. Only for not filing the report. Even when police get in trouble for what they do, they typically on paper only get in trouble for how they did it.